Call for Action

Make a difference for the following elephants who are desperately in need of your voice.

16 12 Hawthorne Elephants

UPDATE: Talks in works to move Hawthorne elephants

The Elephant Sanctuary (TES) rescued Delhi, Lota and Misty but sadly, were too late to save Tess; she died while still in chains. Help TES rescue the remaining Hawthorn elephants.

Location: Hawthorne Corp., Richmond, Illinois
Situation: In November of 2003, in an unprecedented action, the USDA confiscated Delhi, a severely neglected 58 year old Asian elephant, from John Cuneo's Hawthorne Corp., a company that "leases" elephants and other wild animals to circuses. Delhi was sent to The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee, where she is currently recovering and doing very well.

In March 2004, to settle the lawsuit filed against him by the USDA, Hawthorn owner John Cuneo voluntarily relinquished all 16 of his elephants. In his consent decree, John Cuneo agreed to place his elephants in USDA-approved facilities (such as The Elephant Sanctuary) by August 15, 2004.

The placement date has come and gone as Hawthorn attempts to manipulate the system with legal maneuvers. Durring this time, Tess, one of his Asian elephants that was to be relinquished, died in early November while under Cueno’s control.

Solution: The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee is standing ready to receive as many of the Hawthorn elephants as funding will permit.They have raised over $1.8 million dollars to build a facility especially to care for these horribly neglected and abused elephants.

Click here for additional information about the Hawthorn Elephants and how you can make a donation to The Elephant Sanctuary's Hawthorn Rescue Fund.

We Remember Lota - 1951 - Feb. 9, 2005

Lota was wild caught and spent her first two years in captivity in a zoo in India. She was then shipped to the Milwaukee County Zoo in Wisconsin where she spent the next 36 years. When the zoo was unable to identify why Lota began to bully one of her cellmates, she was sold for one dollar to the Hawthorn Corporation, a company that trains and rents elephants to circuses.

Lota was broken, trained and rented out to the Walker Brothers Circus. In the fall of 1997, she was diagnosed with the human strain of tuberculosis, a disease that was prevalent in the the Hawthorn herd. It was not until March of 2004 that the USDA took action to ensure that Lota and the other Hawthorn elephants would be sent to sanctuaries, where they would finally receive the care and medical attention they needed.

Lota was donated to the Elephant Sanctuary and arrived at her permanent home November 17, 2004. She passed away February 9, 2005. Her time at the Sanctuary was too short. If you would like to make a donation on Lotas behalf to help the remaining Hawthorne Elephants, please do so by clicking here.